The 100 Club Baby!!

We just got back from a very cool Jazz game experience, even though they lost to Golden State, lame. Our friends called tonight and asked us if we wanted to go to a Jazz game with them. Mark got some tickets from his work. Of course we can't ever pass up free Jazz tickets. Well it just so happens that these tickets were on the front row. Yup, we could see the sweat on Boozer's bald head. We could see Korver's extremely small calves hidden by his silly looking socks. We were able to eat dinner at the 100 Club. I never even knew they had such a thing. Of course we knew Parker would be so jealous!! He did tell us that when he plays for the Jazz he will get us better seats. Now, I don't know how that could be possible. How do you get better than front row, feet on the court? We even saw our season ticket holder neighbors sitting in their seats. Bill was kind enough to trade Kaden places for a little while. It was so cute to see how excited Kaden was to be sitting right by the court. He kept telling me how quiet it was down by the court and he wondered if it would be OK to yell at the players and refs. We had a great time!! It was definitely a once in a life time experience. Of course if they ever have tickets again we told them to give us a call anytime we would drop what we are doing and go. Thanks again Mark and Carrie it was awesome!!

Two Years

I can't even believe that it has been two years since my sweet angel baby passed away. We have had so many friends that have lost little children this year. It has been so hard to watch our friends with the lose of their loved ones. It also brought up all of the emotions that we went through when Rylee died. I was able to work through a lot of emotions that I hadn't dealt with before, after Rylee died. I was so grateful that I was able to offer some advice or help in any way that I could during these hard times.

There are so many times when I wish I could have had more time with Rylee. I want to hold her again, change her diaper, feed her, dress her in a cute outfit, make her laugh, listen to her cry, watch her play with my children, take her to therapy, give her medicine, fix her hair,watch her laugh when a child is crying, so many things that I would love to do again, even just for one more day. I still have dreams that she is alive and I can hold her and love her. Those are my favorite dreams because they seem so real to me. It makes me sad when I wake up and realize that it was just a dream, but at least I can feel for a moment that I still have my baby with me. Even better than dreams are the times that I can feel her spirit with me. It has been awhile since that has happened, but I am so grateful for every time I know that her spirit is with me. I remember feeling her when Jake was born, actually because Jake was almost born about three weeks prior to his birthday, I felt her both times. In fact she rode on the ambulance with me when I had to be taken from one hospital to another during the whole Jake trauma. I was glad to have her there with me, it just made me feel like everything was going to be fine.

I just also want to say that I am so grateful for wonderful friends and family that remember her today. That means so much to me. I could never be able to find the words to thank you enough. We have been so blessed with such great friends and family to help us through hard times. I mostly feel blessed today because I am lucky enough to be the mom to a sweet perfect little angel who taught me more than I could have ever thought possible. Rylee I love you and miss you everyday.

My New Passion

I know that I am a really big geek and this new passion only makes me more of a geek. For the past two and a half months I have become a "couponer/budget shopper." Couponer is not really a word but it works. Since the RS started the blog I have learned from all of the sites on there how to use coupons. I have been really happy with my results. I tracked things pretty closely last month and I have been saving $200 to $300 a month with my new way of shopping and using coupons. I am not only saving money but I have been stocking my food storage with a great three month storage. Not only have I been adding food to my food storage but I have been storing other household and personal hygiene items. I am showing one of my best shopping days so far. I am posting this so I can remember why I am putting the time into shopping this way.

Here is the run down. I got 2 boxes of Cheez-Its, Shout stain remover, Palmolive dish soap, 2 Quarto Razors, 2 packs of Huggies Diapers, 3 Soft Soap, Secret Deodorant, 1 box of Band Aids, 6 boxes of Kellogg's cereal, Reynolds Aluminum Foil, and Rhodes Rolls, not pictured. My total out of pocket was $20.71. If I would have paid full price for all of these items I would have paid $104.63. Now that is quite a savings. The deodorant and Rhodes Rolls were free with coupons. I do admit that I do have to spend a few hours a week shopping this way, but it is totally worth it. One day my goal is to budget only $50.00 a week for groceries. I still have a lot to learn but I will get there someday.

This past week we had an amazing Enrichment given by Pantry Secrets. We learned how to make bread in one hour from start to out of the oven. They also talked about food storage and shopping. It was awesome!! It turns out that it only costs .25 a loaf. No more store bought bread for me. One batch of bread makes four loaves, I finally have a great quick recipe to use that 1,200 pounds of wheat I have. I got a little carried away on the wheat. And the best part is my kids love the bread. I am putting some links on my side bar for my friends who have asked me for them. If any one has some great food storage, shopping or great wheat recipes please let me know. It is always more fun when we work together.

The 1st Hair Cut

My cute little boy with the big poofy hair needed a hair cut. I love his little poofy hair and it was hard for me to cut his hair because I knew it would make him look older. I just couldn't let him go any longer with the long hair. He would have some great hair to make all cute it he were a girl. It is so funny that my boys have both had the longest most beautiful hair.
Today we went to the new kid friendly hair cutting place to get Jake's hair cut. It is such a great place to take kids. He sat in a cute little car to get his hair cut. The girl cutting his hair was so great with him. He doesn't like loud sounds so the hair clippers were very scary to him. When the clippers were done then he was just fine. Jake's loves balloons so I got a balloon for him to look at and he was happy as can be getting his hair cut. He looks so cute with his hair cut and he does look older which is sad for me.

My Basketball Loving Boy

When it comes to Parker, he sleeps, eats and drinks BASKETBALL, thanks to our great neighbors Dorian and Kaden, who took the time to teach my little boy the fine points of BASKETBALL. Since we moved to our house all that the boy can think about is BASKETBALL. The past couple of years he played at the Legacy Center with the city rec program. He and his neighbor friends had a blast because they were really good and pretty much owned the court. This year he actually had a real team to play on at The Factory. This team was made up of a two other boys that he played with the past couple of years. When the season started Parker was very intimidated by the other players. It is hard to go from a kid who could make a ton of baskets and always had the ball to being one of the players that struggled. The team had worked hard this seasons and they played their best. They didn't win too many games this season but they won the one that counted which was the first game of the end of the season tournament. They won the next game in the tournament and last night was the final game. Parker was so nervous, they even had one of their main players out of town, so he was worried. Luckily, last night the BASKETBALL planets aligned for my BASKETBALL loving boy and his team. In Parker's words, "The game was unbelievable," Bill got a laugh when he said, "I played so good, they actually had to start guarding me" The game was close the whole game and with 14 seconds left in the game, the score was 29 to 27, Parker stole the ball from the other team and made a shot, making it impossible for the other team to score or to go into overtime. As Parker just explained to me, "you never know what could happen in overtime." So my little BASKETBALL loving boy was able to have a moment that many boys dream of. If he never in his life has a winning moment like he did last night and least he had one shining moment. We have talked a lot lately about the quote, " athletes and not born they are made" Parker, is willing to do whatever it takes to become a great athlete. I am very proud of him for his hard work and determination. He knows he needs to work a lot harder if he wants to be successful at BASKETBALL. He keeps telling me that he will get me really great seats when he plays for the JAZZ. I can't wait, and I will be his biggest fan!! Way to go Parker!!!

My Baby is One!

Here is the BIRTHDAY BOY!! He is a gift from heaven that has filled our lives with joy and happiness. This baby has brought tremendous healing to our family over the past year. We were not able to truly understand the meaning of joy until he was here. Several years ago before Rylee was even born Bill had a dream that we would have a little brown hair boy, that would fill our lives with joy. He also felt in his dream that he would come after a period of hardship and that he would be such a joy to us that words could not describe. After five years that has happened, we got our little brown hair blessing. I am looking forward to another year of more love and joy. He is my little buddy we get to hang out just the two of us most of the time. I have loved evry stage of the first year of his life. I didn't mind the late nights, the feedings, diapers, spit up, crawling, etc. I cherish every moment with him and I always will. I know how percious each mile stone is in a baby's life and when they can reach each mile stone it is a true miracle.

He is such a good easy baby. He loves playing with his siblings. He doesn't mind when they tie him to the car. They absolutely adore him and they think everything he can do is so amazing. Their hearts have healed so much and they love him so intensely. I worried that it would be hard for them to open their hearts because they had been so hurt and I thought they would be very guarded, but they weren't. They loved him deeply the moment they laid eyes on him.

His puffy hair is the cutest thing. I always have people stop and tell me how cute his little puff is. I really should get it cut, but it is just too cute.

He loves to smile and laugh. He has the best laugh and of course Hailey and Megan can get him to laugh anytime. They always put on quite a show for him and he lives every minute of it.

He is a good sleeper. It is so weird for me to have a baby sleep in his crib for his naps. When my other kids were little I had to drag them all over the place while I worked. They were all very good at car sleeping and Rylee was very good at never sleeping.

He has always had his tongue sticking out and he still does. I of course think it is so cute, slobbery but cute. However, not as slobbery as Rylee.
I couldn't and still can't get enough of taking pictures of this cute little baby. Good thing everything is digital now because I would be going through film way too fast and having to wait to get the pictures developed would have been killer. I love technology!!

After 6 weeks on bed rest little Jacob Ryan was born 4 weeks early. He was so cute and perfect. I loved every second that I got to spend with him in the hospital, even though I had a c-section, it was such a joy to feel so happy and peaceful after having a baby. There is nothing like the pure joy of having a healthy perfect baby. Jake is our tender mercy from a loving Heavenly Father. We love you so much Jakey Boy!!

Home At Last

We have made it home safe and sound from our trip to Australia. It was such a great experience to go to another country. My only experiences with other countries have all been to Latin America. It was so great to see a country where people are thriving. I would say that most people owned a car, much different from other countries I have been to. I also think that most people have a job and that education is a number one priority for their children. It is evident that the couples love each other and they are happy to spend time together and spend time as a family. It was so amazing for me to see the fathers playing and caring for their children in Australia, not that I don’t think that happens in other countries, I just have not seen it happen myself. It was so fun to see another culture, with that being said, I still feel that we are blessed beyond belief to live in the country we live in. It is so amazing to me the variety of choices that we have as Americans. I am so grateful to live in this country. I am grateful for the freedoms that we have. I am grateful to live in a community where family and religion are important. I love that we know our neighbors and that we help each other in times of need. I am grateful that I can ask any of my neighbors to watch my kids for me when I need help. I am grateful that they feel comfortable asking me to watch their children. I love that we take meals to each other when our friends are having a hard time. I love that my children can play with friends that live next door, down the street or in another neighborhood close by. At times I have felt that maybe we know too much about each other, but I really do believe that I live in a neighborhood where people love me and my family and want to help in anyway possible and I in turn would do anything I could for them. That is what I have always wanted for myself and my family. We are very blessed!